Everything Mesh Instancer adds to the editor: menu entries, conversion rules, the Mesh Instances panel, breaking out, every setting, and the messages you may see.
At a glance#
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Plugin type | Editor only |
| Editor platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Engine versions | UE 5.5–5.8 |
| Packaged games | Adds nothing. The results are standard Instanced Static Mesh, Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh, and Static Mesh components. They work in packaged games and keep working if you disable the plugin later. |
| Blueprint nodes | None |
| Settings | Editor Preferences → Plugins → Mesh Instancer, saved per user for this project |
Where to find it#
Right-click in the Components panel of an Actor Blueprint, or in Details → Components for an actor selected in a level.
| Menu entry | Shown when | Acts on |
|---|---|---|
| Convert to Instanced Mesh → Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh | The selection includes a plain static mesh component with a mesh assigned. | The whole selection. |
| Convert to Instanced Mesh → Instanced Static Mesh | Same. | The whole selection. |
| Show Instances | The selection includes an instanced static mesh component. | The first selected instanced component. |
| Break to Static Mesh Components | Same. | The first selected instanced component. |
| Enable Instance Editing | A selected instanced component's instances cannot be clicked yet. | Every selected instanced component. |
Tools → Mesh Instances, in the Mesh Instancer section, opens the Mesh Instances panel.
The shortcut shown beside that menu entry, and the Mesh Instancer commands under Editor Preferences → Keyboard Shortcuts, have no effect in the current version. Use the menus.
Choosing the result type#
| Type | Suited to |
|---|---|
| Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh | Scattered or repeated geometry. Instances are culled and use levels of detail individually. |
| Instanced Static Mesh | Instances are drawn together without individual culling, with less overhead. Preferred for Nanite meshes. |
Measure the result in your own scene; conversion does not guarantee a particular performance gain.
How pieces are grouped#
Each group becomes one new component. Selected components share a group only when all of these match:
- the static mesh;
- the material in every slot, whether it is an override or the mesh's own material;
- whether the piece is mirrored by a negative scale, including scale inherited from a parent;
- the collision preset;
- Collision Enabled.
Skipped components#
Components that cannot be converted are listed in the dialog with one of these reasons:
| Reason in the dialog | What to do |
|---|---|
| Not a static mesh component | Select plain static mesh components. |
| Not a static mesh component (Already an instanced static mesh component) | Break it out first to change its type. |
| Is the root component | Keep the root and select other components. |
| Inherited or native, so this Blueprint cannot replace it | Convert it in the Blueprint that adds it. On a level actor, only components added to that placed actor can be converted. |
| No static mesh assigned | Assign a mesh first. |
| Has painted vertex colours, which instances cannot carry | Keep the component, or turn off Skip Meshes With Vertex Colours and accept losing the paint. |
| Attached to a socket that cannot be resolved | The socket is not on a static mesh parent, for example a skeletal mesh socket. |
| Has attached components that are not being converted | Include its children, or keep the originals. |
| Fewer instances than the configured minimum | Select more pieces, or lower Minimum Instances. |
What a conversion creates#
- Placement: each new component attaches to the closest component that is a parent of all its pieces and is not being converted, or to the root. Instances keep their exact placement, numbered in Components panel order.
- Names: a prefix and the mesh name, such as
HISM_SM_RockorISM_SM_Rock. A second group with the same mesh gets_2, then_3. - Always new: a conversion never adds instances to an existing instanced component.
- Undo: the whole conversion is one Undo step.
| Carried to the new component | Left at defaults |
|---|---|
| Static mesh and the material in each slot | Component tags |
| Collision preset and Collision Enabled | Hidden and visibility settings; new components are visible |
| Cast Shadow, Dynamic Shadow, Static Shadow, and Receives Decals, taken from the first piece in each group | Custom Primitive Data |
| Mobility from Result Mobility | Collision responses changed beyond the preset |
| Draw distance, level-of-detail, lighting-channel, and other settings |
Result Mobility is raised when needed to match the component the result attaches to. An Actor Blueprint's default scene root is Movable, so results in a Blueprint are usually Movable.
Originals are deleted by default. Kept originals are hidden in the editor and in game with collision turned off. Their own attached children stay visible.
The Convert dialog#
| Part | Content |
|---|---|
| Title | Convert to Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh or Convert to Instanced Static Mesh |
| Components to create | N component(s) to create, holding M instance(s), then one line per new component with its mesh and instance count |
| Left alone | N component(s) left alone, with a reason for each |
| Still referenced by graph nodes | Variable nodes in this Blueprint's own graphs that use a component marked for deletion. Shown in a Blueprint when deleting originals. Other Blueprints and the Level Blueprint are not checked. |
| Delete original components | Starts from Delete Originals By Default. Changing it updates the lists. |
| Buttons | Convert, disabled when nothing can be converted, and Cancel |
With Confirm Before Converting off, conversion happens straight away and skipped components are not reported.
Editing instances#
Click an instance in the viewport to select it, then use the gizmo. Instances of newly created components can be clicked by default. In the level viewport, clicking instances also needs Project Settings → Editor → Level Editor → Enable viewport static mesh instance selection.
In a Blueprint, moving an instance also updates placed copies that still use the old value. Add, Duplicate, and Delete in the panel apply to placed copies too.
Mesh Instances panel#
| Part | Details |
|---|---|
| Header | The component and its mesh. The instance count is beside the filter box, or X of Y while filtering. |
| Warning strip | This component's instances cannot be clicked in a viewport yet. Enable fixes it. |
| Filter | Matches an instance number or text in its location. |
| # column | Instance number. Sortable. |
| Location, Rotation, Scale | Editable values, relative to the component. Editing a row changes only that instance. Sorting by Location orders instances by distance from the component's origin. |
| Selection | Several rows can be selected. Selection follows the viewport in both directions. |
| Button | Effect |
|---|---|
| Add | Adds an instance on the first selected instance, or at the component's origin, and selects it. |
| Duplicate | Copies the selected instances in place. They are selected only when Select New Instances is on. |
| Break | Same as Break to Static Mesh Components. |
| Delete | Removes the selected instances. |
| Copy | Copies the first selected instance's transform. |
| Paste | Applies the copied transform to every selected instance. |
| Reset | Returns selected instances to the origin with no rotation and a scale of 1. |
| Focus | Frames the first selected instance. Double-clicking a row does the same. |
| All / None | Selects every visible row, respecting the filter, or clears the selection. |
Each committed field edit is one Undo step. Paste and Reset add one step per instance. Selection changes are not recorded in Undo.
Which component the panel shows#
Show Instances points the panel at a component. With Panel Follows Selection on, it follows your selection: an instanced component selected in a Blueprint editor first, then one selected in the level, then the first instanced component on a selected actor.
An open Blueprint editor with an instanced component selected keeps pulling the panel back to that component. Deselect it there, or turn off Panel Follows Selection. Keep that Blueprint's Viewport tab open so selection and Focus reach it.
Highlight All When Component Selected selects every instance when you select the component while the panel is open. The gizmo then moves the instances rather than the component.
Breaking out components#
| Selection | Result |
|---|---|
| Some instances selected | Only those become Static Mesh Components; the rest stay instanced. |
| No instances, or all of them, selected | Every instance becomes a component. |
- Placement: new components are added beside the source, under its parent, exactly where the instances were.
- Names: Broken Out Prefix, the mesh name, and the instance number. With the default prefix and a mesh called SM_Rock, that is
SM_SM_Rock_3; change the prefix if you prefer. - Carried: mesh, materials, collision preset, Collision Enabled, mobility, the three shadow settings, and Receives Decals. Per-instance custom data and tags are not carried.
- Refused: the root, inherited or native components, components with no mesh, and components with no instances.
- Undo: the whole break is one Undo step.
| Remove the instances that were broken out | Whole component | Selected instances |
|---|---|---|
| On (default) | The source component is deleted. | Those instances are removed from the source. |
| Off | The source is kept, hidden, with collision off. | The instances stay, overlapping the new components. |
The dialog shows how many instances will become components, the mesh, and the range of names. It warns when the count exceeds Break Warning Threshold, but never refuses. With Confirm Before Converting off, breaking also happens without the dialog.
Settings#
Open Editor Preferences → Plugins → Mesh Instancer.
| Category | Setting | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion | Confirm Before Converting | On | Show the Convert and Break dialogs. |
| Conversion | Delete Originals By Default | On | Starting state of Delete original components, and the choice used without the dialog. |
| Conversion | Skip Meshes With Vertex Colours | On | Leave components with painted vertex colors unconverted. |
| Conversion | Minimum Instances | 1 | Groups smaller than this are left alone. Minimum 1. |
| Conversion | Result Mobility | Static | Static, Stationary, or Movable. Raised to match the parent when needed. |
| Naming | Hierarchical Prefix | HISM_ |
Name prefix for hierarchical results. |
| Naming | Instanced Prefix | ISM_ |
Name prefix for instanced results. |
| Naming | Broken Out Prefix | SM_ |
Name prefix for broken-out components. |
| Breaking | Break Warning Threshold | 256 | Warn when a break would create more components than this. Minimum 1. |
| Breaking | Remove Source Instances By Default | On | Starting state of Remove the instances that were broken out. |
| Instance Editing | Enable Instance Editing | On | New components get clickable instances. |
| Instance Editing | Panel Follows Selection | On | The panel follows the selected instanced component. |
| Instance Editing | Panel Refresh Interval | 0.1 s | How often the panel refreshes, from 0.02 to 2 seconds. Reopen the panel after changing it. |
| Instance Editing | Highlight All When Component Selected | On | While the panel is open, selecting the component selects all its instances. |
| Instance Editing | Select New Instances | Off | Select the copies that Duplicate creates. |
Console commands#
Both commands act on actors selected in the level.
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
MeshInstancer.Status |
Prints each selected instanced component's instance count and whether its instances can be clicked. |
MeshInstancer.EnableInstanceEditing |
Makes the instances of selected components clickable and reports how many components changed. |
Messages#
| When | Message |
|---|---|
| Conversion succeeds | Created N instanced component(s) holding M instance(s). |
| Conversion fails | The first error, or Nothing was converted. |
| Break succeeds | Broke N instance(s) into separate static mesh components. |
| Break fails | The first error, or Nothing was broken. |
| Nothing selected can be converted, without the dialog | Nothing in the selection can be converted. |
| Nothing can be broken, without the dialog | This component cannot be broken. |
| The Components panel could not be read | The component hierarchy could not be read. Reselect the components and try again. |
| Focus finds no viewport | A warning in the Output Log. Open the Viewport tab of the asset that owns the component. |
Limits#
- Show Instances and Break act on one component: the first selected instanced component.
- Painted vertex colors cannot be kept per instance.
- To switch between Hierarchical and plain instanced types, break the component out and convert it again.
- Conversions always create new components; they do not merge into an existing one.
- The graph-reference check covers variable nodes in the same Blueprint only.